Rich and Poor
by Tribulation Periwinkle
Summary: Tony Stark was five years old when he discovered he was rich.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. Don't sue.

**Prompt: **101—Rich

**Rating: **K

**Summary: **He was six years old when he discovered he was rich. Movieverse.

**Author's Note: **My takes on the LJ Pepperony 100 Community. Each time I tackle one, I'll be posting it under this title.

Tony Stark was five years old when he discovered he was rich. He had never thought in terms of rich or poor until another child pointed it out to him.

The kid's name, as Tony remembered years later, was George. Tony remembered George as a tall, skinny brat, a year or two older than the heir to Stark Industries, who enjoyed picking on his younger classmate. What Tony had conveniently forgotten over the years, of course, was that the bullying began when Tony had referred to George as stupid. George, it seemed, didn't understand anything about engines; Tony assumed that equaled a lack of intelligence. After all, Tony had been working on machines since he was old enough to pick up a wrench.

George, driven to tears by Tony's insult, had gone home and had a tantrum. George's mother had calmed her son down by explaining that Tony Stark was very, very rich and rich kids were always spoiled and told how wonderful they were. Tony Stark didn't know more than George knew about cars and computers, George's mom insisted; people just told Tony he was smarter than everyone else because the Stark boy was so wealthy.

George soon recovered from his trauma. (The fact that Tony Stark progressed to middle school while George was still memorizing multiplication tables probably helped George in this regard.) Tony, however, was a different child from the first moment the word "rich" was applied to him.

As far as Tony had known before, everyone had at least as much money as the Starks. Uncle Obie, for example, always dressed in much nicer clothes than Howard Stark did. Maria Stark's friends wore gross-looking fur coats and talked about the expensive vacations they were planning. His dad, by contrast, was just some guy who worked in their basement making things.

Finding out his family was rich changed Tony's entire worldview. He gradually became suspicious when any other child wanted to be his friend; the other kid probably just wanted to hang out and have a good time on Tony's allowance. During his very brief stint in high school, other boys made a point of telling him that if a girl was nice to a kid like Tony it was just because she wanted his money.

Tony soon discovered that being wealthy had its advantages. Even if girls only wanted to hang out with him so he could take them somewhere nicer than McDonalds, they were still pretty and they smiled at him and, as he grew older, let him do some very intriguing to their bodies.

When he thought about it (and he tried to stay drunk enough not to), however, Tony would become depressed by how people reacted to his fortune. He never could be sure if someone wanted to be near him for the pleasure of his company or whether they were nice because they wanted a piece of the Stark billions. He even had his doubts about Rhodey sometimes; after all, Rhodey was on his payroll.

The one person he was completely sure of was Pepper Potts. He couldn't explain why exactly; Pepper was even more reliant on Tony financially than Rhodey was.

He wouldn't figure that part of it out until after Afghanistan.

**Prompt: **102-Poor

**Summary: **Pepper was ten years old when she discovered what it was like to be poor. AU (and a bit of backstory for a longer piece I'm working on).

When Pepper was ten years old, she discovered what it meant to be poor.

That was the year her father left, taking his income with him. She and her mother still had the house, but Mom had to get a job and the house payments were too much and eventually they had to move out. Her home with the swing set Daddy had bought for Pepper's brother Jeremy and the little house in the backyard Daddy had built for Pepper was replaced with a one-bedroom apartment near the airport where the sound of the planes made it hard for Pepper to study. Sometimes she would just sit and stare out the window instead, making up lists of the places she wanted to go.

Mom started working evenings at an airport bar to earn because she'd grown an inch over the summer and they need money for new school clothes. That was where Mom meant Sam Potts, who was a pilot. Mom hadn't been in love with him, not the way she'd been in love with Daddy, but Sam was nice. So when Mom asked Pepper whether she'd like them to move into Sam's house, Pepper was in favor of the idea—as long, she added, as Sam didn't live anywhere near the airport. Jeremy came back for Mom and Sam's wedding, but he acted like they weren't even family. He sulked the whole time he was there, called Daddy every night, and talked to Daddy's new wife and called her "Mom."

Daddy never asked to talk to her when Jeremy called.

After that, Pepper decided to call Sam "Dad;" she even changed her last name to Potts.

She didn't see Jeremy again until Mom's funeral eleven years later.

Pepper was a practical person; she didn't see any point in dwelling on the past. Years later, however, she would compare her childhood to Tony Stark's and be pleasantly surprised. She'd learned to rely on herself while her mother worked evenings; she'd learned how important it was to make every penny count (and what a luxury it was to treat herself to the occasional pair of designer heels); she'd had a loving mother and a caring stepfather.

Tony, on the other hand, had always had someone looking over him; he was pampered and allowed to indulge a stunning amount of self-destructive behavior. He'd never had to balance his checking account. (Pepper shuddered to think what would happen if Stark Industries went belly up.) As for loving adults, the elder Starks had never sounded very affectionate to her, and the less said about Obadiah, the better.

No, Pepper reflected, being rich hadn't done Tony a lot of good. Maybe there was something to be said, after all, for knowledge of what it meant to be poor.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **Not mine; don't sue.

**Prompt: **003—Red

**Rating: **K

**Summary: **Virginia Potts had never had much luck with nicknames.

Virginia Potts had never had much luck with nicknames.

Her first nickname, the one her father gave her the day she was born, hadn't been all that bad: Ginger Cat, short for Virginia Catherine. No one called her that after her parents divorced, and it was definitely too childish for a grown woman anyway.

Once she started school, people started calling her Red. This infuriated Virginia, who didn't care to be defined by the color of her hair. The more she complained, however, the more people (boys, mostly) insisted on referring to her as "Red." This form of teasing got worse, of course, once she hit junior high school and the boys' hormones kicked in. It ended in high school, when the boys started realizing that Virginia Potts never went out with any of the guys who called her "Red."

By then, she had resigned herself to "Ginny." It was too pedestrian for her tastes, really. But at least it was a traditional nickname for "Virginia," and, besides, "Ginny" was what her mother called her. (Unless Ginny was in trouble, at which point her mother referred to her as "Virginia Catherine.")

At first, she was irritated when her new boss added yet another nickname to the list. Each time he called her "Pepper," she crisply replied, "My name is Virginia, Mr. Stark." Mr. Stark, being Mr. Stark, paid no attention to her protests.

Everyone at Stark Industries was soon calling her "Pepper." After all, it was Mr. Stark's company. If Mr. Stark said, "Don't bother me with this; call Pepper," not only would the employees call her, they would call her by the name Mr. Stark had bestowed on her.

She wondered occasionally whether Tony Stark's insistence on calling her "Pepper" was motivated by an impulse similar to the ones that had caused her male classmates to call her "Red."

She decided that even considering the matter was unprofessional.

She also decided not to tell Mr. Stark, about six weeks into their professional relationship, that she had realized that she quite liked being Pepper Potts. Pepper seemed, somehow, to suit her personality better than Ginger Cat, Red, Ginny, or any other nickname did. She did, she admitted to herself, feel rather peppery—quick-witted, energetic, even (in a thoroughly professional manner, of course) spicy. At last, she thought, a nickname she could live with.

As long as Tony Stark didn't discover that she liked it.

**Disclaimer: **Not mine; don't sue.

**Prompt: **004—Black; 005—blue; 006—green; 007—gray; 008-brown.

**Rating: **K

**Summary: **She's never liked black at all; that's the irony of it.

**Author's Note: **It's probably cheating to include so many prompts in one drabble, but all those colors just made me start thinking about Pepper's relationship to color.

She's never liked the color black at all; that's the irony of it.

Every morning she picks out yet another black outfit to wear. (Occasionally, if she's feeling daring, she'll substitute navy blue or a dark gray or a somber brown.)

It's not only a matter of looking professional, she tells herself; it's a matter of looking distinguished. Black jackets and pencil skirts set her apart from the women whose dry-cleaning consist of warm blues, deep reds, or frilly pastels. Those women are disposable, at least from Tony Stark's point of view; Pepper Potts is the permanent fixture in his life. The women may not get the point Pepper's making, but it reinforces Pepper's self-esteem.

Self-esteem is a necessary quality when your first professional assignment most mornings is to escort your boss' latest conquest out the door.

Blacks (and navy blues and grays and browns), however, are not the colors she wears in private. At home, or on the rare evening out, she prefers jewel tones. She goes to yoga class in canary yellow, cooks dinner with a turquoise tunic over her jeans, lounges around the house in a gypsy skirt that combines emerald green and amethyst.

She loves the way that skirt twirls around her ankles when she dances to the music on her stereo system. Her love of the colors, the movement, and the fabric, she supposes, reveals a sensuous side of her nature that no one in her professional life would suspect.

At least, she would hope that one individual in her professional life doesn't suspect it.

If Tony Stark even suspected that side of her exists, Pepper suspects, she would need to change her name and move to another continent for protection.


End file.
